For only P240, eight slices of divinity would be at your fingertips: twenty five variants of "original Italian pizzas," as their menu describes it. For P120-170, pasta and soup of every imaginable culinary configuration. P35 gets you a cup of delightful gelato in flavors that would make you ditch that sorry pint you picked up from the grocery. P30 is a cup of strong, brewed coffee. P50 is a box of ensaymada and P70 is a huge spinach loaf. I kid you not. It's really cheap, considering that the servings are good for two and terribly tasty.

At this day and age when everything else would bleed your wallet dry, a visit to Amici di Don Bosco would really give you a welcome respite from overpriced Italian cooking. It's affordable, it's hot, and all the ingredients are fresh and imported.

If there's any room for improvement, then it would have to be the venue since it really gives a cafeteria vibe with all the metal railings, meal trays and the students lining up with their plastic serving numbers in hand. On the other hand, the self-service, campus-pizzeria feel could add to the unpretentious ambiance compared to the chi-chi glossiness of the Makati business district. If only they would have extended hours (it's only open from 10am-9m, Monday to Saturday), it would definitely be a fantastic venue for Sunday family lunches or post-lecture dinners with groupmates.

For now, i guess one would just have to be content with gazing at the posters of landscapes across Sicily while waiting for a piping hot pan of authentic Italian fare.

Special thanks to the anonymous Bosconian priest who helped us get to the road to Greenbelt by passing through the printing press office one rainy Saturday night.